Contemporary Sculptures — A487: From a Universal Collector - The Olbricht Collection
Kiki Smith is a West German-born American artist whose work has addressed the themes of sex, birth and regeneration. Her figurative work of the late 1980s and early 1990s confronted subjects such as AIDS, feminism and gender, while recent works have depicted the human condition in relationship to nature. Smith lives and works in the Lower East Side, New York City, and the Hudson Valley, New York State.
Athena Vida, birth name Gitte Schäfer, is a German artist. Working mainly in painting and drawing, her works often explore themes of identity, memory and the human condition.
Vida studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, Germany. Since then she has exhibited her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad.
Her paintings often feature complex, multi-layered compositions in which elements of abstraction and figuration are interwoven. She often incorporates text and symbols into her work, adding an extra layer of meaning.
Vida's drawings are more minimalist, often featuring simple, repetitive shapes and patterns.
Overall, Athena Vida's work is deep and complex, inviting viewers to engage with both the surface images and the deeper layers of meaning lurking beneath them.
Los Carpinteros is a Cuban artist collective founded in Havana in 1992 by Marco Antonio Castillo Valdes, Dagoberto Rodriguez Sanchez, and Alexandre Arrechea (who left the group in 2003).
In their work the artists incorporate aspects of architecture, design and sculpture to create installations and drawings that “negotiate the space between the functional and the nonfunctional", where they derive their “inspiration from the physical world” and express their interest in the intersection of art and society in a humorous manner. Los Carpinteros create a response to places, spaces and objects, how they have been conceived, built, used and abandoned.
Los Carpinteros is a Cuban artist collective founded in Havana in 1992 by Marco Antonio Castillo Valdes, Dagoberto Rodriguez Sanchez, and Alexandre Arrechea (who left the group in 2003).
In their work the artists incorporate aspects of architecture, design and sculpture to create installations and drawings that “negotiate the space between the functional and the nonfunctional", where they derive their “inspiration from the physical world” and express their interest in the intersection of art and society in a humorous manner. Los Carpinteros create a response to places, spaces and objects, how they have been conceived, built, used and abandoned.
Katharina Fritsch is a German sculptor who lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.
She studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art and became known for her iconic and unusual sculptures and installations.
Fritsch's work often evokes disturbing religious or quasi-spiritual associations and is deeply psychological, as if she were trying to give an image to our deepest fears, extracted from the world of myth, religion, cultural history and everyday life. One of her most impressive works, Rat King (1993), is a circle of sixteen giant rats, each nearly ten feet tall, with their tails tied in a massive knot in the center.
Jonas Burgert is a German figurative artist living and working in Berlin.
Jonas Burgert graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin and studied as a graduate student (Meisterschueler) under Prof. Dieter Hacker in Berlin, and his work has been characterized from the very beginning by its vivid originality.
Burgert's paintings are filled with fantastic figures of the most unimaginable proportions. In the spaces of his panoramic paintings, one is immersed in a visual chaos of narrative layers, amidst mysterious events, strange figures and creatures. Jonas Burgert's large-format paintings are dominated by the grotesque, the bizarre and the surreal. Nightmarish zombie-like figures invade his pictorial worlds, frightening and appealing at the same time.
Since 1998 his work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions around the world, Jonas Burgert is now very successful and his works are very willingly acquired by many galleries.
Gregor Schneider is a German artist. His projects have proven controversial and provoked intense discussions. In 2001, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for his infamous work Totes Haus u r exhibited at the German Pavilion.
Dana Wyse is a Canadian writer and visual artist.
Wyse’s early career was characterized by photography works exploring Canada and its history and environment. Photography works by Wyse can be seen in the book Vancouver: A History in Photographs. In 1996, Wyse began her best known artwork, a pill-themed installation called Jesus Had A Sister Productions. It is a work-in-progress to which the artist adds new elements each year and that crosses the line between art and business.
